Questions and Possibilities for Inner Inquiry

· Exploring the Warrior Archetype: This way of being has great gifts and great limitations as well. In what way is this archetype confining me right now? How could I find access to a softer, gentler part of myself?

· Asking for help: What kind of prayer or request could I make to life, spirit or the universe at this point in my life journey? How does my heart want to ask for help? How do I ask without demanding and without limiting the possibilities that might be available for me right now, if I am really open?

· Self nurturing: How do I discover what I need right now to nourish my body, mind, heart, spirit and creativity? Can I allow myself to let go of what I think I should be doing? (yoga, straight back meditation, cleansing, etc.) and listen deeply inside myself for what I am drawn to do, and can actually do, right in this moment.  How does it feel to lie in bed when I am tired, and do some deep breathing and tapping, instead of trying something more rigorous? How does it feel to take baby steps, and just try writing for 10 minutes a day?

There’s something I don’t think I made clear in our session. It was the part about doing something other than your passion or your dream.

I want to make it clear that I am not suggesting you give up on your dream for a minute!

What I learned from my coaches is that while we are working on what we really want to do, it can help a lot to stay open to other possible ways of receiving income, so that our dream or passion does not bear the burden of financial desperation.

These other ways can be things that we also enjoy and learn from, even if they are not the number one thing we want to be doing.

As I said to you, I always thought of that as a compromise, as if I had to give up on what I wanted most in order to open to other possibilites. Now I see it another way, and realize how fixed I was in my own ideas of how the universe should be supporting me.

For me, it was very liberating to let go of that fixation and say to Life, “Okay, I’m open..whatever needs to happen-how do I know what that is? I’m not running this whole show. Let me be open to the mystery and grace that is the source of everything I know.”

Dedicated to your Optimal Well Being and Full Aliveness

Issue #1

Dear students and friends:

This is the first issue of the Soma Yoga newsletter. I have put you on this list if you are a yoga student, or someone I think might be interested. If you do not want to receive this newsletter, please put Remove in the subject box, hit Reply, and I’ll remove you right away, with great willingness. I do not want to clog up your inbox with emails you are not going to read.
If, on the other hand, you know someone who might benefit from this newsletter, please pass it on to them. Thank you!
Please remember to put my name on your email white list, so your spam detector doesn’t throw me away.

A Place To Sit

Don’t go outside your house to see flowers
My friend, don’t bother with the excursion.
Inside your body there are flowers…
Sitting there you will have a glimpse of beauty
inside the body and out of it,
before gardens and after gardens. (Kabir)

Yoga and Community
On one level, your yoga practice is all about your relationship with yourself. As one of my students at the government building said recently, “I love it, because it’s a non-competitive sport!” But on another level, yoga is all about community. Doing yoga with people offers you a simple and very profound way of connecting. It’s been a great joy for me to watch deep friendships evolve in my yoga classes over the years. Just by being present, just be showing up, and witnessing the efforts of the people in your class, you offer them a great deal. Don’t underestimate the value of what you are giving and receiving through your yoga practice.

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I’ve been lucky enough over the past six years to have 5 children born in my immediate neighborhood. I’ve witnessed a lot of natural and exuberant learning and evolution, right in my own back yard. Isn’t it amazing to think that every human being walking around on our planet learned how to walk in the same way: by standing up and falling over, standing up, taking a step and falling over, again and again and again.

Then we start thinking, once we’re a bit older, that our learning should proceed in an entirely different manner. Sometimes it does, but there is still a lot of falling down and getting up that is an essential part of human life. Have you noticed this? Learning to accept this aspect of life as a given and work with it in a good way can release a lot of our suffering. Molly Gordon, a wonderful coach I have worked with, speaks about learning how to “bow to failure.” When we bow to our failures, we look a little deeper than how things first appear. We get curious enough about the nature of life to consider that perhaps failure is not something to be shunned and avoided at all costs. What if our failures bring us something just as valuable as our successes? This has been a big learning for me, and I’d like to share some of it here.

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Please print this lifeletter if you can. It is meant to be held in your hand.

Dear friends:
This lifeletter is an introduction to the whole process of evolution and transformation, as I have engaged in it and witnessed it over a lifetime. This lifeletter is a bit longer than usual, even though I’ve made this description quite short and simple. I’ve used ‘aphorisms’ or compressed statements that can be expanded and unfolded by each one of you as you read this. 

I’ve spoken of our evolution in the context of coaching as I have experienced it, and as I practice it, but of course it can also happen quite spontaneously.

There are a multitude of ways to approach this subject. This is one window into a vast realm. Looking through it may be helpful to some of you. I hope so.

‘And the day came when the risk to remain in the bud
became more painful than the risk it took to blossom.’ (Anais Nin)

Introduction

Barefoot Coaching is offered in these areas:
· Personal evolution
· Relationships
· Communication and Expression
· Non-dual spirituality
· Writing

Barefoot Coaching begins with a vision of you standing here with a foot in both worlds: the formless world of spirit, or Being, and the constantly evolving world of your humanity. To grow into the wholeness of your true nature is to learn how to embrace and honor both of these aspects.

I’m a coach who engages you, my client, in a process of deep learning, where all of you gets involved-body, mind, emotions and spirit. I have had over 20 years of experience in supporting your ‘evolutionary impulse’ the natural movement in you toward wholeness, freedom and integrity. I’m interested in helping people evolve, heal and awaken in new and surprising ways right now.

This process carries us beyond problem solving, to a place where we can all participate fully in life, and in creating a future that allows us to take care of each other and our planet.

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A few years ago, when the Olympic games were in Athens, I was watching them one night on T.V. The American commentator decided to give us a taste of Athenian life, so he walked down to the main square with the T.V. cameras. It was about 5pm, and the square was just filling up for the evening. There were children skipping rope and playing tag, teenagers on skateboards, mothers with babies in their arms, students drinking coffee, businessmen with newspapers and liqueurs, and old men playing chess. He strolled for a few minutes around the square, taking in the vitality and general friendliness of the scene.

What I noticed was how many people were actively engaged in talking with each other. Not the cursory cell phone kind of conversation we are so used to now, but real dialogue. It intrigued me so much that I lost interest in the games. When they were over, the same commentator went back to the square at one in the morning, “just for fun” he said. “We’ll see who’s left.”

He was astounded to find that the square was still full, and not because of the games. The mothers and young children had gone home, but they had been replaced by people of all ages who were still talking. This was quite unfathomable to the commentator. Finally he approached a white haired Greek patriarch, who stood up to speak with him. “Excuse me sir,” said the American, “could I ask you a few questions?”
“Of course,” the man beamed. “What would you like to know?” He was a remarkably tall and handsome fellow, towering above the American.
“What do you do here all night long?”
“We enjoy each other’s company,” the Greek replied. We laugh, we sing, and we engage in dialogue. We are eager to find out what is in each other’s hearts and minds.”
There was a moment of stunned silence.
“Will you be on time for work in the morning?” the American asked.
“Of course,” the patriarch replied with a huge smile. “But we Greeks have a different understanding of time and work than you North Americans.”

A few years later, I spent some time running a series of conversation cafes in our community. My intention was to bring as much of the community together as possible, and create an environment where they could engage in dialogue. I had been living in India for 25 years, where dialogue and inquiry are like part of the air you breathe. The people in India, like those in Greece, are not afraid to ask what I call ‘the big questions.’ As my teacher there used to say, “Any rickshaw driver will talk to you about God, life and the universe.”

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Welcome to our new subscribers.
This material is copyrighted. You may reprint any of it in your blog, newsletter, or ezine, provided you include the full copyright information and link back to http://www.barefootjourneys@netidea.com

Let’s Turnaround

One of the themes that keeps appearing in my life and work lately has been the nature of cause and effect. How much freedom do I really have? Am I really the product of my genes, my upbringing, my conditioning and my situation? We certainly tend to think like that in our society. But is it really true?

I have asked hundreds of students and clients this question over the years: Do you really think that circumstances, people and situations determine your experience?
I’ve asked them to sit with that question in silence and wait for the truth to show itself to them. And I’ve never had anyone reply ‘Yes’ to that question. That amazes me. Every single person who took that question into their heart said ‘No, it must be that I am responsible for my own experience. I can’t make anything else the cause, otherwise I am a victim.’

But here’s where it really gets interesting. When I looked at the way I was actually living, I was amazed at how often I was thinking and behaving as if circumstances were much more powerful than I was.  (It was often my coaches that pointed this out to me, God bless them.) And I saw the same thing happening with my students and clients. I really started to wonder, “What’s going on here? Why are we not living according to what we really know to be true?”

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One of my readers, Karen Marsden, wrote and thanked me for my ‘lifeletters’ a while ago. I realized that she had come up, spontaneously, with a new name for these newsletters. Thanks Karen. And welcome to 20 new subscribers and new members of this virtual community. I’m posting some of your responses to and comments on the lifeletters in my blog, which is part of my website.
The Power of Willingness

I’ve been noticing lately the kinds of questions that arise when I’m working with people:
“Would you be willing to accept this experience just as it is?”
“Would you be willing to love yourself for feeling this?”
“Would you be willing to ask your body about this?”
“Would you be willing to live with this question and not know the answer?”
“Would you be willing just to say yes to this moment?”

A lot of the time people respond by wanting to know how, how to do whatever follows the word ‘willing.’ But that’s not the question. We really don’t have to know how. All we have to do is touch into the willingness.

About six years ago, on retreat, I discovered the power of willingness. Our facilitator had asked us to open right up and directly contact our inner experience, the whole spectrum of our feelings and thoughts, without holding back. He asked us to find out how willing we were to do that. I was in a lot of emotional pain at the time, and I realized, when he asked the question, that I wasn’t very willing at all to contact myself in that way. I was deeply discouraged by this, because I could see that without that willingness, I was stuck in a contracted place. I walked around for a while, contemplating my unhappy state, and wondering where I would find the willingness I was looking for. Then I realized something. I saw that I was willing to be unwilling. It seemed so simple, almost like nothing at the time. I simply saw that I was in a place of unwillingness because I was willing to be there.

It reminds me of Jon de Ruiter, a spiritual teacher, who talks about the liberating power of tenderness. He says that all you need to start with is a tiny droplet of tenderness. That’s what happened to me that day-I found a tiny droplet of willingness. And once I found it, it expanded and filled the whole universe. It turned into something much bigger and more potent that I had ever imagined. I realized that willingness is not something my mind produces. It’s an unconditioned quality that comes from the ground of my being.

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